Press Release on the participation of the Hon. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable on “Natural Disaster and Climate Change: Managing Risks and Crises Differently”

Press Release

The Hon’ble Kamal Thapa, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs co-chaired the High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable on “Natural Disaster and Climate Change: Managing Risks and Crises Differently” – one of the seven roundtables being organized as part of the World Humanitarian Summit being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Speaking on the occasion, the Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs shared with world leaders the experiences and lessons learned by Nepal in the process of rescue, rehabilitation, and reconstruction following the devastating earthquake that struck the country last year. While expressing that putting in place effective policy, programme, strategy and institutional mechanism was a very important step towards developing a consistent framework for climate action and ensuring multi stakeholder partnership at the national, regional and international levels, he informed the leaders in the roundtable that Nepal had a National Adaptation Plan of Action, a Local Adaptation Plan of Action, environmental and climate policies and programmes as well as Environment and Climate Change Councils at the highest level to muster political will in this area.

Emphasizing the need of build back better for increased resilience at the community level to ensure quick response and avoidance of bigger losses in life and property when disasters strike, he observed that the build back better called for increased financial resources, application of technology suitable to the local situation, and increased innovation.

He underlined the necessity of more investment on preparedness as it was important to minimize risk and damage.

The roundtable was moderated by the U N Secretary General, who, during his remarks following the statement made by the Hon. Deputy Prime Minister, appreciated the quick response and effective coordination of the Government of Nepal in the aftermath of last year’s earthquakes. The other co-chairs of the roundtable were the President of Republic of Nauru, the Deputy President of Kenya and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Hon’ble Mr Thapa was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Mr Shanker Das Bairagi during the roundtable.

On the sidelines of the roundtable meeting, Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs also had a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of Sweden. During the meeting the matters of mutual interest, including the Swedish economic cooperation to Nepal, were discussed.

The Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Kamal Thapa is leaving for Israel this afternoon for his two-day visit to Israel, where he will have meetings with the President and Prime Minister of Israel.